Blood Tainted Sand Goddess
by FallingDarkStar
Summary: It was foretold that a maiden of great strength and wisdom would be the savior of the great ninja nations...or bring upon its destruction. Haruno Sakura x Gaara Summary sucks u guys, just R&R!
1. Prologue

**Fated Sand Blossom**

**Prologue**

Sometimes things happen without you wanting them to happen. Sometimes the things that happen in our lives may seem unfortunate or disastrous, but later on, when we look back at all the bad times…we see that those bad times are the ones that lead us to the joyous life we have now. No one really deserves to be happy without going through a hard time first. That is when you will find true happiness and a sense of belonging; that is when you will appreciate what you have.

For the longest time, I have been struggling with myself. I have been running from my destiny; running from what I have to do. I know that this—well, I know that by the time you read this, I will no longer be alive. I want you to know that I'm sorry about everything that's happened, and I love you. I suppose that this is my farewell letter to you—if anything. It pains me to say this, but…it's the end for us. I know that you will be suffering, and I apologize for that—but this is what I must do to save everyone. I am the only one who can. Please understand that I am not telling you this out of revenge or anger…but out of love.

Forgive me for leaving now, but you know that there is no other choice, and I shall not allow you to put yourself at risk again to save me or anyone else. You deserve to live, to rule your village as you have always wanted. This is your time now, so make the best of it. Do not mourn for me; I am in need of no tears where I am headed. I just want you to know that I…I am grateful for everything that you have done for me up to now, and…farewell.

Sakura Haruno

Sakura took in a deep breath and placed the inked pen on top of the small writing desk in front of her and folded the piece of paper she had written on in half. She left it in the center of the desk with the rose made of sand her lover had made her; she knew he would find what she had left for him. No doubt he was on his way over to her tent at this very moment, huffing and puffing out steam from his ears and nostrils, his eyes glazed with anger at hearing she was leaving. It couldn't be helped though. She had already analyzed the whole situation thoroughly a million times…and this was the only battle plan she could think of that would work.

She was walking to her death.

Oh, how she would miss him. He was the most amazing man she had ever come across in all her years of living such a hard life. The life of a ninja was a difficult one, a harsh one; not something that just any one person could do. You had to be strong, you had to endure…and you had to abandon all that you love so that it would not be used against you. Some ninjas are more selfish than others, thus they do not part from the ones they love…but fate always has a way of making you suffer for the loved ones you refused to let go of. Perhaps that is why she was in the situation she was in now?

Slowly rising from the chair she sat in, she blew out the tall candle standing on the corner of the desk and walked over to the entrance of her small tent and stared at the closed flaps for the longest time. Her green eyes glowed lightly in the darkness of the tent, mentally preparing herself for death. Despite the outcome of her life, she would do this all over again…just to be with him one more time, to see his light blue eyes rimmed in black. She sighed and lifted one of the flaps of the dull, white tent and…as she did so, she found herself looking back; back to when she began to feel alive again…back to when he was first reunited with her….


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! **

**Chapter 1: _The End Has Only Begun _**

She should be used to this by now, despite her young age. She had lost many people before...numerous people she knew. Men and women, young men and women who were too young to die on the battlefield. Many of them had died in her arms, under her care at the hospital, and sometimes they had died before she was able to come to their aid. She could not help them; each and every time she had tried so hard and spent most of her chakra to heal their wounds, but they had either decided to embrace death, or simply stopped believing she could heal them.

Despite being so familiar with death, beside the fact that she had to deal with it every day, at this time...it was as if she were a genin experiencing it for the first time in her life. Usually, she would deal with it calmly, almost as if she had not watched their last moments on Earth with her own eyes; however, the situation she found herself in at the moment would not allow her that usual outlet and strangely enough for her, she wanted to save their lives.

Thunder roared loudly above the young kunoichi as she plunged a kunai into an enemy nin's throat before she pulled it to the side swiftly, and used it to block another nin's kudachi. The man was taller than she was, a malicious glint in his eyes as he pushed down on his short blade, trying to over power her, but with a burst of strength, she was the one who did the overpowering. The kunoichi slit his throat mercilessly, her green emerald eyes blazing with determination and a scowl on her lips.

With the stealth of an elite shinobi, the kunoichi made her way across the small forest clearing and snuck up on another nin, coming up behind him expertly, grasping his head between her black gloved hands and snapped it to the side violently, killing him instantly. She felt no guilt, no sympathy nor remorse for the men and women she was currently killing. She had no connection with these shinobi, and now she never would.

Reaching the two teammates she had been searching for, she stood completely still as she watched them fall to the grass covered floor; one with a kunai embedded in their forehead and the other, a slit throat. She felt nothing. She felt no anger, hatred, sadness, nor shock; all her emotions seemed to have fled, but it has been like this for two years now. She just stared at their limp bodies lying motionless on the grass, knowing that they were dead and feeling like she was suddenly not standing in the forest clearing. Even when she felt something penetrate her left side she hardly moved.

The kunoichi turned, grabbed the nin by the throat and lifted her off her feet with just the one hand she had around the girl's neck before she punched the girl in the chest with her monstrous strength, killing her on impact and sending her skiing through the ground and through a few tress. The kunoichi stared at the two bodies before her, and slowly walked over to them. Her black pants swished silently as she took her time to reach them, and then she knelt down beside them. Slowly, she raised her small slender hands and placed one on each of their chests.

She began to pour her chakra into their bodies, trying to heal what was impossible to heal, impossible to disrupt- death. She closed her green eyes in concentration and focused her chakra to each one's heart. She could not say that she hoped they would miraculously open their eyes and come back to the land of the living, nor could she say why she was trying to heal them when she had known from the moment she saw them fall that they were beyond her salvation.

She did not feel anything. It was as if her entire body had gone numb and she was watching all of this from behind, through someone else's eyes. Every shinobi she had watched die, had a reason to die. They had each had their own reason to leave this world.

They had no reason to die though. No reason to abandon hope. No reason to stop believing that she could heal them. No reason not to believe in her because she was the best they could ever hope for. They had every reason to live; to recover. They were loved, and they were close friends to countless shinobi. They had a seventeen year old daughter...they had everything and yet, they had died in her care. They were gone, forever out of her reach.

The kunoichi felt a soft, consoling hand on her shoulder and slowly looked at her shoulder before letting her eyes travel up the gloved arm while still pouring her chakra in to the corpses in front of her. As her gaze traveled upward, her eyes met a pair of familiar porcelain blue eyes that were glazed over with pity and sadness. She hated that look in his eyes, it did not suit him, and she did not want his pity.

She let her head fall back down, she let it hang low as her hands continued to glow a faint blue hue, her long pink bangs began to stick to the sides of her face as the sky unleashed the water it had promised. It sprinkled down on the remaining shinobi, wetting their once dry, blood stained ANBU and making the kunoichi's long pink braid stick to her back. Somehow, it was as if she could not feel the rain at all, and none of her remaining teammates blamed her. Still, she uselessly continued to drain herself of her chakra, trying in vain to awake the two dead bodies before her.

"Stop...they're dead, Sakura-chan." Slowly, the blue hue around her hands disappeared. She brought her trembling bloodied hands toward her face to stare at them, the whole while, the shinobi's hand still on her shoulder. Carefully, Sakura lowered her hands and slowly rose to her feet, her back turned to her companion. "I know," she said quietly, her voice almost drowned out by the roaring thunder in the black skies. She turned to stare at her companion, her captain for this mission, as she spoke again. "Could we bring their bodies back with us to Konoha? It won't slow us down...will it, Naruto?"

The blond shook his head with a small understanding smile. "No, it won't slow us down, Sakura-chan." Naruto turned to their other two teammates; their faces were saddened by Sakura's current loss. "Neiji, Lee, would you guys mind?"

Both shinobi shook their head and picked up one body each before they jumped to a tree and darted out of sight. Sakura looked up at the night sky and blinked when a water droplet fell into her eye. She soon realized that it was raining and that the sky had been crying for a long while. 'Why can the sky cry for them...but I cannot?' she thought to herself. She looked over at Naruto, they exchanged a nod, and then the two of them jumped up into a nearby tree, understanding that it was not safe to linger in the enemy's territory any longer than they already had. Naruto and Sakura quickly caught up with Neiji and Lee, and from that point on, Sakura never averted her eyes away from the slung corpses over the two men's shoulders.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said softly from behind her, "will you be alright?"

She nodded her head, but said nothing more. She did not need to say any more, he understood her...if only a little and she did not feel like talking right now anyway. She was feeling disturbed. She knew that she should feel great and unimaginable sadness, depression, helplessness... something, but she felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Naruto felt bad for Sakura, the way she remained calm and kept herself together impressed him. The old Sakura would have broken down and wailed or bawled right on the spot. She was hurting on the inside, no matter how detached she made herself of emotion at the moment; he knew that she had to be hurting on the inside. He hardly knew the two shinobi whom had died, but he felt sad, and a small pang in his chest at remembering how they died. 'Looks like this mission was a failure,' he thought as he followed closely behind Sakura. 'At least we were able to get that scroll from Rock Country.'

Sakura glanced back at Naruto for a brief moment to see a grim expression on his face. She envied him. No matter what, he was always able to wear his emotions proudly, and vaguely, she could remember a time when she, too, wore her emotions proudly. To her, that time seemed to have been in a whole different life time. She mentally cursed for not keeping herself focused. One minute she was staring at Neiji's back, and the next she found herself emerged in darkness.

She was floating on water, ice cold water. She had experienced this once before. Slowly, she stood in the water, and then the Arctic water disappeared, her clothes completely dry. It was dark, the only thing she could make out was dried out trees, or perhaps the trees were all dead and not dried out. Nothing had life: the trees, the patch of dried out dirt where there should be green grass, the dead crumpled flowers, and even the water was not as alive as it should be. She was inside of her mind. This empty dark hell was her mind.

As she looked around, she swore that it had gotten worse sense the last time she had been in her own mind. Her expression was dull when she felt a familiar chakra behind her. Without turning around, she spoke. "What do you want now?"

Behind Sakura, Inner Sakura materialized out of a faint purple chakra. Her arms were crossed, her face the same as Sakura's for the time being. Although Inner Sakura looked a lot like the real Sakura, inner Sakura had a soft worry in her eyes as she continued to look at Sakura's back. "Rude, just like always," she said mockingly.

"Shut the hell up. Why are you here and why are you me? Why not show up in your own damn skin and not someone else's?"

"Not in the mood to talk, love?" asked inner Sakura, seemingly unfazed by Sakura's ill treatment.

Sakura growled low in her throat as the muscles in her jaw tightened. "I never want to talk with you. What do you want?"

Inner Sakura transformed herself into a beautiful black haired woman with a long white dress with a golden sash. The white dress pooled around her feet and the sleeves were off her shoulders. "Why did you not let me help you out there?"

"Because I do not need your help, that's why. I would rather die than let you help me again, you beast. The last time you helped me you almost killed someone important to me..." Sakura clenched her fists tightly as a memory jolted in her mind, making her flinch involuntarily. She closed her eyes and calmed her self down as best she could, trying not to snap at the woman behind her.

Slowly, Sakura turned around to stare into the woman's bright yellow eyes, her own emerald eyes looking dull in comparison. "You almost killed him that time...I won't let you do anything like it again."

The woman shook her head slowly, "I am not a beast, Sakura. You know that. I am a goddess. If you would have just let me help you back there then your...they would not have died. I could have prevented it somehow."

"No, you would have most likely killed them yourself, and then you would have turned on my teammates after you killed the entire enemy nin nearby. I don't need you."

"That's not true. You need me, Sakura. Let me help you."

Sakura shook her head and took a few steps back. "No. Enough talking. I am leaving."

The darkness lifted from her ever so slowly and she opened her emerald eyes. She was met with a pair of blue eyes looking down at her, and she blinked confusingly, noticing that she was no longer jumping in the air from tree to tree. "What happened?"

"You just fell out of the tree, Sakura chan. It was like you just let yourself fall in the middle of jumping. You sure you're okay?"

Sakura sat up and looked around, ignoring his question. "Where are we?"

"We're almost at Konoha's gates. Neiji and Lee went on ahead of us."

Without a word, Sakura stood up from the ground and dusted her back. "We should get going then. We don't want to keep them waiting, do we?" With a nod, Naruto took off for Konoha, Sakura following closely behind him as she dived into her own thoughts. So much had changed over these past two years. No one bothered to really keep in touch anymore, except for herself and Kakashi. He was the only one who always sought her out. Ino had died on an A-ranked mission about a year ago, Naruto was happily married with Hinata, who was expecting a child, and he was ANBU, so he did not have any time left over for her...And Sasuke...well, he was a whole different matter all together.

She had always been the underdog, the weakest member of her three member team, the one who watched everything happen from a distance while everyone protected her. She was always being criticized by her family and friends about how weak she was and useless she was. She was no longer weak, no longer the underdog, no longer being called useless. Yet, she was still watching certain things from a distance, still being criticized by others, though not directly because almost everyone was frightened of her; but she would hear whispers about her around the village.

At times, the falseness of the rumors would irritate her, anger her, but she would never do anything about it. She just did not care about anything anymore. She neither cared if she lived or died, at this point, everything seemed so pointless to her. What was the point in staying alive when there was nothing waiting for her? When there was nothing to look forward to? Often, she would find herself wishing from someone to end her life, but her wish would never come true. There was no one out there in the world that could kill her; she was far too strong, too clever, and merciless.

She had turned completely cold, devoid of all the emotions she once had. She never smiled anymore, and she seemed to have forgotten how to show kindness to those around her. She was lost, stuck in a current of darkness. No one needed her; no one loved her in the way she wanted to be loved. No one ever needed her, did they? No one ever loved her, did they? No. No, they did not. There was no use for her, no purpose for her. Id she died right here and now, life would go on. Her death would not leave an impact on anyone's life. So why was she alive? What purpose could her pathetic existence have other than to kill, assassinate, and complete missions for her village?

"Sakura-chan, do you want me to get Tsunade to take a look at you?"

Sakura shook her head almost immediately, "No, there is no need. I'm not injured, I'm fine." She took a look around to see her surroundings, and found that she was in the hospital. To her surprise, her dull green eyes were fixed on two body bags in the white room across from where she stood.

Naruto had not asked if she was alright, so she assumed that the whole while she had been staring at the black body bags, he had thought that she was mourning their deaths. She felt a small pang in her heart and inwardly sighed. Naruto and everyone else must truly think that she was a horrible, emotionless, unfeeling person.

In those black body bags were two shinobi, shinobi whom had raised her sense she was an infant. In those body bags were shinobi whom had once told her they loved her. Shinobi that took care of her when they could. They were shinobi that gave their lives for there village, for Konoha. In those body bags...were the corpses of her parents; her mother and father, but she could not even cry for them.

She felt bad. They were dead, and she could not mourn, could not cry, could not muster the desire nor need to cry for them. She felt nothing except for the small ache in her heart every few minutes. She closed her eyes and turned back to Naruto. "Where's Neiji and Lee?" she asked, suddenly noticing that they were no where to be seen.

Naruto frowned. "They left a while ago. They tried saying bye to you, but you were staring out at space. It was like you weren't really here."

She nodded before she walked towards the hospital's exit without looking at Naruto or the two body bags behind her. She walked out of the hospital, the double doors opening up automatically for her to exit, and then closing silently behind her as she walked out into the rain filled night. The streets of Konoha were empty at this late hour, and the rain drove away anyone who might still be awake and wanting to take a relaxing walk around the village. It was pouring, the rain making it seem like there was mist all around her. The heavens were heaving oceans of water down at the Earth, and Sakura welcomed all of it.

As she walked towards her parents' house, she let the rain soak her from head to toe, letting the water wash the matted blood on her face, in her pink locks, her once white ANBU vest, and letting it muddy her sandaled feet. She cringed as she felt a throbbing pain on her left side, and the chilling temperature began to sink in. She was glad that Tsunade had not been at the hospital when she was there because Tsunade would have noticed the wound and insisted on treating it immediately.

The sharp pain pulsed through her whole body and she fell to her hands and knees, the ground scraping harshly against her knees and drawing blood even though her pants did not rip. The muddied sand entered her palms as the soft skin there tore as well, and she hissed lightly. Where the throbbing pain was coming from, she did not know. She just knew she deserved the current pain she was receiving because of her inability to cry for her dead parents.

There was an ache in her heart, something clenched her heart lightly and she allowed herself to fall to the wet, muddied ground. She moved her head to the side so she would be able to breath, but other than that, she made no other attempt to pick herself up. She just lay there, allowing the rain to fall on her mercilessly while her green eyes seemed to be staring out into the distance and at nothing in particular.

'Why am I still alive? Where am I going and – no, why am I trying to go home when there is no home to go home to anyway? ...There was never really any home to go home to for a long time now. That is why I said that I couldn't cry...because they were never really there for me. I can't cry for them even though they were my parents because they turned their backs on me. They ignored me...they left me on my own all the time...They never really loved me...'

'But you still cannot bring yourself to hate them or be happy that they are gone. Face it Sakura, a part of the real you is still within you, no matter how much you deny it; it is still there.'

'Go away.'

She guessed that the house she had been brought up in no longer had any connection with her. For three years, she had been staying over at Kakashi's apartment when her parents were not home. She would hate to stay in the Haruno's big house all by herself, and Kakashi would always come to get her at her house. He would invite her over for dinner, watch a movie or read a book together before they fell asleep. She would go to his apartment...except he was on a mission so it did not matter which house she went to tonight. The end result would be the same no matter what; she would be alone.

At the sound of distant footsteps, Sakura was aware that someone was walking towards her. She knew it was not Naruto, he was with Hinata by now, enjoying the warmness of his house, lying next to the one he loved, and besides, he had not even noticed in the least that she was injured. Who could it be, walking around in this rain at this hour? Well, who ever he was, he was heading straight towards the Hokage's tower, she was sure of it.

She should not care that a stranger was walking towards her, should not care what he or she saw. Perhaps she should play dead and hope that the stranger just walked passed her, and left her lying in the rain. Yet, there was something different in the stranger's chakra readings. She had felt this person's chakra before. . .it was so familiar to her.

Sakura made herself stand up while holding her left side with her right hand, her legs wobbling slightly as she rose. She would not allow anyone she knew see her beaten up, she had far too much pride for that, and besides, she did not know who was walking towards her. If it were Kakashi, then she most definitely did not want him to see her this way.

She narrowed her eyes in an attempt to see who it was, but the only thing she could see past the mist was that something was hovering above the figure and that the form walking towards her appeared to be male. Sakura straightened up as much as she could as the male continued to come closer and closer. Slowly, she realized who it was walking in the middle of the street in the pouring rain.

Unwillingly and abruptly, she remembered being pushed backward off a tree branch with great speed and force, then being pinned to a tree by a monstrous hand before everything went black. She clearly remembered the sand that held her to the tree, and she willed the memory away because she harbored no ill feelings of hatred towards him. She slowly blinked twice, and realized that she was staring at her sandaled feet, so she raised her eyes to stare in front of her. . .only to find that he was now standing in front of her, his head tilted to the side and arms crossed over his chest.

Sakura stared at him for a long time, her green, dull eyes staring into his blue ones. She noted that he had changed since the last time they had met; his eyes were not as dull as they used to be. Without her consent, his name left her lips. ". . .Gaara. . ."

It was a while before he answered her, looking her over once and concluding that she had just returned from a hard mission. "Why are you here and not in the hospital? You have lost a lot of blood."

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes, at his pointing out of the obvious, wondering who was worse: Kakashi or Gaara? "I'm fine. What are you. . .doing here?"

For old times sake, Gaara commanded his sand to rush out towards her, making it seem like was getting ready to wrap her in his Sabaku no Kyo and kill her. The sand slowly crawled up her legs, gripping the tightly. He was by no means prepared for the order that came from her lips.

"Kill me."

His face remained expressionless with a great deal of effort, but he was shocked. Why would she ask that of him? Without getting the chance to question the injured kunoichi in front of him, she fell forward. His sand would have easily caught her, but he commanded his sand not to move, allowing her to fall on to him, her head landing in the middle of his chest as his arms held her around the waist to keep her from slipping off of him and onto the muddied ground. He looked down at her. She was still conscious, but she could no longer stand on her own. It appeared that she was in worse shape than he had thought. "Sakura-"

"Why?" she whispered against his chest, her arms at her sides limply. She looked up at him with great difficulty. "G-Gaara. . .why? Why is it. . .always me? Am. . .am I not meant to be happy?"

Her voice sounded so sad to his ears. So broken. He simply held her against him, silently giving her comfort. It was awkward, he had never held anyone before in his life, but this is what he had seen other people do when someone was sad or injured. He had never seen her like this before. Then again, it was not very often that she and he spent any time together. He looked down at her only to find that she was unconscious.

Lifting her up and carrying her bride style as he walked at a fast pace towards the hospital, he wondered why she was alone in the rain. If she had gone on a mission alone, then she would have had to see the Hokage to turn in her mission report, and the Hokage would have noticed her injury them moment Sakura would have walked through the door. If she had been on a four man team for the mission, then at least on of them should have noticed her injury.

Gaara unconsciously tightened his hold on her as he ordered his sand to transport them to the hospital. Where the hell was Naruto Uzumaki? Why had he not checked up on her to make sure that she was okay? Gaara's sand shielded him and Sakura from the rain again as he now stood in front of the hospital's double doors. Why did she want to die?

Walking pass the nurse sitting at the desk, who was asleep, he made his way down one of the halls in search of Tsunade or Shizune. Searching for their chakra signatures, Gaara turned a corner onto another hall and found Shizune's. Without permission or any type of warning, Gaara opened a hospital room and found her sleeping, her head flat against a brown desk while sitting in a black chair. "Shizune."

Said medical ninja awoke with a star, head snapping up at Gaara as she stood up from her chair. "G-Gaara-sama! We were not expecting you until tomorrow!" she blurted out.

"Should you not be more worried about Sakura?" Gaara asked impatiently.

Shizune, noticing the pink haired kunoichi for the first time gasped and was looking her over in an instant. "Oh my kami, what happened?" she asked as she walked out of the room towards another room across the hall.

Gaara was not sure if he should answer her question or not, after all, he was not there; so he decided to ignore her question for now. "Where is Tsunade-sama?"

"Ah, she is still filing away some files at Headquarters." Shizune motioned for Gaara to put Sakura down on the bed, but the moment he began to lower her on to the bed, she clung to him tightly, making small noises of protest.

Gaara stood straight and looked at Shizune. "I would rather you went to get the Hokage."

"But Tsunade-sama is-"

"I don't care. Go get her, now." He watched as Shizune nodded and ran off to get Tsunade, leaving him alone in the room with Sakura. Attempting to lay her down on the bed again, he received the same reaction as before. Not knowing what else to do, Gaara sat down on the bed with Sakura in is lap, her head resting comfortably on his left shoulder. He unclipped her white vest and carefully removed it to throw it on the floor, his eyes catching a glimpse of a shiny metal object poking out of her left side.

Taking a closer look, Gaara noticed a senbon needle sticking out of the skin just below her ribs. 'How the hell could no one notice a fucking senbon needle in her side?' Gaara thought heatedly as he reached over towards the counter and opened a drawer to get a dry whit cloth. Taking a short breath, Gaara grasped the senbon in his right hand, and in one fluid motion, pulled it out to replace it with the white cloth. He pressed the cloth against her side tightly, trying to keep the blood from flowing out of her wound.

Gaara had never thought that the first time he would see Sakura again after two years; she would be in such a poor condition. He could not believe how much she had changed in these passed two long years. For a long time, Gaara just sat up on the hospital bed with Sakura on his lap, his left hand keeping constant pressure on her wound as he suddenly got an image of a fifteen-year-old Sakura smiling at him sweetly. He had another image of a sixteen-year-old Sakura, eyes closed with happiness and a bright smile on her face as the wind blew her semi-long hair behind her.

Somehow, he felt Sakura was lost, like she had been thrown in the background and forgotten. She seemed fragile and insecure with herself, not at all like the happy, energetic girl he had met. To his dismay, her face was getting pale. He hoped that Tsunade would hurry up and show up in front of him any second.

He was getting irritated. Why he did not know, but he assumed that it was partially due to Sakura's current state. Her atmosphere had gone and made a 360 degree turn. He could feel it as he held her in his arms. It was like she was no longer there, like she was a shell of the person he once knew. Her soul...it felt empty, just the way he used to feel what seemed to ages ago.

Looking back a few years, he remembered how bad of a ninja she was, wearing all of her emotions like clothes for all to see although shinobi rule number twenty-five clearly said, "A shinobi must never show his tears in battle." He had seen her cry on various occasions, seen her seethe in anger when insulted, and seen unmatched determination.

However, he – Sabaku no Gaara – had close to no emotions. He knew what they were, but understood too little of what certain emotions meant. Half of the time that was the reason why he was frustrated, because he did not know what they really meant, and the other half of the time, he did not know what it was that he was feeling.

Sensing the approaching presence of the powerful Hokage herself, Gaara removed himself from his thoughts and straightened himself up as much as he could on the bed while trying not to move Sakura around too much, nor remove his left hand from her wound.

Corresponding with Gaara's thoughts, the tall, high heeled kunoichi with long blond hair pulled back in a low pony tail and honey colored eyes walked into the same room Gaara was in. As she walked in the room, her heels clicking loudly as she walked on the solid cement beneath her, she immediately went into medic mode. "Gaara-sama, I will need you to lay her down on the bed."

Gaara made no motion to move as he stared at the Hokage's eyes. "It would appear that I am not able to, for she will not allow me to put her down. Besides, it appears she is having some sort of bad dream," he said as he watched Sakura's face clench and unclench.

Tsunade nodded before she walked over to the bed Gaara was sitting on and removed Sakura's hands from his shirt with a bit of effort then put her on the bed. "I see you already took out the cause of her injury?" She saw him nod once sharply, and she proceeded to take Sakura's blood stained, dirtied black shirt to reveal a smaller black tank top underneath.

Running her hand around the wound, Tsunade examined it carefully. "It's infected due to the rain and dirt that managed to seep into the wound. The weapon apparently had a poisoned tip as well." Tsunade ran her hand over the wound slowly, effectively healing the skin and making it seem like the cut was not there in the first place.

"Was that all you had to do?" Gaara asked.

"No, I have to remove the poison that got into her system, and try to reduce her fever."

'Fever? She didn't have one just a couple of minutes ago,' thought Gaara as he continued to watch Tsunade heal Sakura.

Pouring some chakra into Sakura's chakra system in an attempt to take out the poison, Tsunade knitted her thin blond eyebrows together in frustration. 'Shit, not again. Sakura, fight her, don't let her gain control of you. Let me help you.' She again tried to remove the poison, but again she was not able to. The blond woman cursed and slammed her fist down on the whit counter beside her, breaking it in half unconsciously.

"Damn it! She won't let me heal her. She's not accepting my chakra or my help," she whispered to her self.

Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow in her direction. "What?"

". . .Nothing. She will be awake soon, and she will be moody when she does. I can't do anything for Sakura anymore. I did what I could. . .she just needs some rest, that's all."

He watched as Tsunade took one last look at Sakura before she walked out of the hospital room after she had taken off Sakura's sandals and covered her almost dry body with the white bed sheets. Who was Tsunade talking about? Who was she, and why would she be moody? 'What the hell is going on?' he though as he stared at Sakura's sleeping form. Leaning against the wall next to her bed, Gaara closed his eyes to meditate. Perhaps those were questions better answered by Sakura...when she awoke.

For the mean time, Gaara would be waiting for her to awake, and because he could not sleep, he decided to watch her through out the whole night. Seeing her again for the first time in two years was stirring unknown emotions within him. When she awoke, he would be there, watching over her.

_**:End Chapter:**_

Please PLEASE tell me if you liked it and if you would like me to continue! I really need the support.


	3. Chapter 2

I don't own Naruto!!!!!!!! Leave me the hell alone people!

Thank you for the reviews. I really appreciate them!!! **1)** Someone said that my story resembled another anime? I have never heard of that anime, may I ask you to tell me what it happens to be about? **2)** I understand that there was some spelling errors. I am sorry about that, but I have no real time to edit this story.

**3)** The more reviews I receive, the more motivated I shall be to update this story. It does not matter what I have to do to update as long as you review. **PLEASE**, if you have any suggestion or if anyone wants to volunteer to beta then send me a small review or email through PM or my personal yahoo one. I don't care which you choose.

Also, this story will be acquiring art work to go with it. I will post the links into my profile when my friend and I put the art up on Deviantart. If anyone else wants to do art, feel free to do so. Just tell me so I can link you and your picture on my profile so that others could see your work of art. Now, enough of my annoying rambling. Story time!

**Chapter 2: Guarded**

Blue eyes stared intently down at Sakura's sleeping form, his mind swimming in countless thoughts concerning the rosette kunoichi resting on the white sheeted hospital bed. So much of her had changed in the last two years that he had been apart from her. Unconsciously, the red headed Kazekage let his eyes travel from her face, down to her exposed middle section.

For an unknown reason, his eyes remained plastered on the well toned, tight skin between her small black shirt and black pants. He wondered how her skin felt, if it was as soft as a Sakura petal, but once he figured where his line of thinking was leading him, he quickly averted his gaze. Seemingly tired of standing up for the remainder of last night and half of the day, Gaara sat down on the bed, his back to Sakura.

He stared at the clock hanging on the wall; it was already nearing mid-day. She had been sleeping for almost nine hours. Once or twice she had mumbled something he could not understand, but otherwise slept soundly without awakening. It was at this time that the young kunoichi plunged Gaara into complete and utter puzzlement with just a small whisper. "...Gaara..."

He looked down at her so fast that he almost got whiplash, his eyes wide with shock and surprise. Was she dreaming...and if so, why was he in her dream?_Why_ was he in her dream and why had she breathed out his name? Observing her face, Gaara could see that she was not having a nightmare, so it must be that she was dreaming something...or his name just slipped from her mouth by accident. He shook his head and recrossed his arms over his chest, but his blue eyes stayed glued on her beautiful face.

...Beautiful? Well, she most certainly was not ugly, and he was not known as a liar. Gazing at her more closely, he could clearly see why Naruto and Lee had once declared that they were in love with Haruno. However, Naruto ended up marrying Hinata Hyuga, but Lee was still single. Either because he thought that Sakura would come around sometime soon and accept his love for her, or because he just could not find someone else to love.

Everyone had paired up over the years. Naruto and Hinata were married, Neiji and TenTen were seeing each other, even Temari and that lazy ass Nara had gotten together. The only ones that weren't together were Lee, Sasuke, Sakura, and himself. Why Sakura and the damn Uchiha did not hurry up and get together , he did not know. She had waited forever for him, bled for him, almost died for him in the hands of Orochimaru, and he had finally returned to her, but now it seemed that he was waiting for her instead.

Any way Gaara put it, he did not really want to think about Sakura and the Uchiha getting together and marrying or dating or whatever the hell they would decide to do together. It sent a small ache to his chest when he would think about Sakura with Sasuke.

Why was he sitting here, next to her anyway? Because he wanted to. He owed her far more than she herself realized. She was the reason why he had decided to go through with becoming Suna's Kazekage in the first place. When Naruto was on a mission or could not make it to Suna during one of his dangerous outbreaks, she was the one who was there in a pink flash, calming him down and reminding him what he wanted. Gaara recalled a time when he spoke with her before he became the Kazekage.

He had been standing on top of a large mountain that over looked Suna. You could see the whole village from that one spot on top of the mountain's edge. It was an hour or two after mid-day. He had wanted to get some time for himself, away from his older siblings and the inhabitants of Suna. He wanted to be left alone for a while...to think, to reflect on himself, and perhaps he wanted to meditate for the fourth time that day. He had just spoken with Konkuro an hour ago about his desire to become Kazekage.

Konkuro had said...Well, his words hurt him even though he did not show that he was hurt. Konkuro had told him that the superiors of the village did not think very much of him...and that when it came to him, the majority of the village was embraced with fear.

He already knew all of that, knew and understood _why_, but wither way he looked at it, he also that it was unfair. It was at that moment that he sensed her familiar presence. "What are you doing here?"

She smiled at him as she stood next to him, her green eyes taking in the beautiful sight in front of her. "Nothing. Just thought you might want to maybe talk to someone?" Sakura crossed her arms behind her back and waited patiently for him to respond to her question in some way more than just staring.

He turned his body to the side so that he could fully see her, her face containing a vibrant small smile. "You're Naruto's teammate, the girl I almost killed in the chunnin exams last year."

Sakura nodded at him, his mention of almost killing her not bothering her in the least. Then again, for the last three times that he and she had met, he had started conversation with her the same way. "Aren't you the girl I almost killed?" She was not sure if he was reassuring himself that even after his little incident, she was still alive and talking to him, or because he was just not sure what else to start a conversation with.

Either way, she gave him a small giggle just like she always did. "Yeah. U heard about your desire to become the Kazekage. I think that would be a great idea."

He stared at her while he tried while he tried not to look shocked. "How can you see it as a good idea when everyone else around you thinks it is a bad idea?"

Sakura inched closer to him as she spoke. "Everyone around you thinks it is a bad idea because they have no idea when the Shukaku inside of you might decide to get out...but you do. I think that it is a good chance to show the villagers of Suna just how much you have changed; you know, to show that you are not the same person you used to be."

Her thought out answer seemed to be exactly what he needed. He nodded his head at her and then sat down on the sand. He was surprised when she sat down next to him without hesitation. This girl, she had always gotten on his nerves for some reason. She was always so nice and polite...unless you insulted her in some way, but she had never acted that way towards him. She should hate him...just like everyone else. "Are you not afraid of me? Do you not hate me?"

She looked at him with a bewildered expression. "Hate you? Why would I hate you?"

He looked down at the buildings of Suna before he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Because I tried to kill you." He watched as her mouth shaped into a small "o", and then turned her head to the side. She as silent for a while, and he thought that perhaps she did hate him...but then she washed away that thought all together.

She looked at him sincerely as she spoke. "I don't hate you, Gaara. I can't _hate_ anyone really. I have already forgiven you for what you did to me in the past; I understand why it is that you did what you did. I am just not the kind of person who can hold a grudge against someone, no matter what the reason happens to be. Aside from that, i completely understand that you were unstable at the time. Honestly, you surprise me. Going through everything that you went through...and being able to be here as the man you are...I do not think that I could have handled all of that hatred directed at me for such a long period of time."

She paused as she looked at the sunset in front of her, the sun slowly falling in between two giant mountains in the distance and seeming to set the village of Suna ablaze. She thought sincerely on how she could help to encourage his desire to become Suna's Kazekage. "You know," she said after a while, "when you become Kazekage, I am sure that the villagers will be pleased to have you as their protector. Once you show them how much you have really changed, I am sure they will accept you, Gaara. Everyone changes over time; no one stays the same. You will be the _greatest_ Kazekage Suna has ever had, you'll see."

Her words had helped him to confront the council about becoming Kazekage. She had somehow helped him heal a conscious he did not know he had, and she had inspired him as well. Haruno, a chaotic force to be reckoned with in battle and a gentle healer away from her duties as an assassin...she truly is something else.

He watched her turn in her sleep, seeming not to be completely comfortable, her pink lips parted slightly to bring oxygen into her lungs. Her face tightened and she suddenly looked as if she were in slight pain. He wished he could get inside of her head and see what was going on inside of her. Wishing- that was something he seemed to be doing a lot of these days. Of course, he never really expected any of the wishes he made come true. It was all just wishful thinking in the end anyways.

Inner Sakura concentrated her chakra on vaporizing the poison inside of Sakura's blood stream while she listened to a rambling and frustrated Sakura. "Why the hell didn't you let Tsunade heal me when she tried? Now she _knows_ there is something wrong with me!"

Sakura was inside of her own head again, the same dead atmosphere as before present even though she took no notice of it this time around, and this time she was not going to just shoo Inner Sakura away like she usually did. This time around Sakura wanted some damn answers.

"Why? Because the Hokage would have just wasted her chakra. The only one who can heal your injuries from now on is either you or me. It would be less painful if you just joined your chakra with mine and accept me as a part of you instead of just pushing me away all the time."

"Feh, I would rather the process of healing hurt like a bitch than join my chakra system with yours. There's not a chance in hell you and I will ever be one. Got that?"

Inner Sakura sighed loudly. "You Harunos are so damn stubborn. You will except me eventually, Sakura, of that I have no doubt. It is just a matter of time."

Sakura opened her mouth to shout, but froze when she felt something crawl all over her body with an eerie feeling. The feeling sent waves of chills through her body and she tried not to cringe. "W-what the hell was that?"

Inner Sakura rose an eyebrow, her expression one of surprise and amusement. "You are telling me that you felt that?"

"Of course I felt whatever _that_ was." The strange feeling ran through her again, pulling at her heart and this time she flinched. "What the _hell_?"

Sakura's counter part smirked, "You should wake up. Looks like someone wants you back, Sakura."

As the estranged feeling began to pulse through her body again, Sakura closed her green orbs and disappeared as she felt something pull her up roughly. While going through the process of waking up, she silently pondered about who it was who possibly wanted her to come back. She hoped that Kakashi was back early from his mission with Genma, and that he was sitting right next to her. When her emerald eyes fluttered open, she lightly frowned. Kakashi was not sitting next to her or anywhere in the room she was currently in; she was alone...just like always.

"You're awake."

Snapping her head to the side when she heard the masculine voice, she was slightly started to find someone was in the room with her. She watched through her green orbs as her eyes followed the direction in which the familiar voice came from and found herself staring at Sabaku no Gaara. He was staring at her with his arms crossed over his chest, an impassive expression on his face. She stared back at him with curiosity before she turned away from him. "Yeah. What are you doing here?" her reply came out a tad bit colder than she had intended, but she made no mention to say so.

"I brought you to the hospital, so that means that I have to stay here until you recover." Gaara seemed not to take offense to her cold treatment, and he moved to stand right next to her. "What happened, kunoichi?" He saw her narrow her eyes sadly for a moment, as if remembering what had happened, but it was gone the moment it came.

"...Nothing..." Slowly, Sakura sat up on her hospital bed, her pink bangs covering the sides of her face, and some stray strands falling of their own will in front of her face. She closed her eyes and remembered him walking towards her in the rain at night. She remembered falling into him, her vision blurring in and out of focus before she lost consciousness. Had he carried her all the way to the hospital and stayed with her the whole time?

He stayed quiet as he watched her intently. He had not expected her to be all cheery, but he had not expected her to be that...dismissive either. She had changed a lot since the last time he had seen her. Her pink hair had grown longer, her physical dorm had changed due to her constant training, and her once vibrant green eyes were dull, and the light that had once so beautifully radiated from her had disappeared. "You sure about that?" He wanted to know what happened to her on her mission, wanted to know why she was injured. He wanted to know why she had changed so much. He wanted her to open up and tell him why she was so troubled that she could not sleep peacefully at night.

"...Yeah, I'm sure.," she said, but her expression said otherwise. She bent her head lower, hiding her face under her hair so he could not see her. Why was he still standing here, in her hospital room? _'I want Kakashi to be here...'_ she thought to herself as her hands gripped the white bed sheets as a pulsing pain erupted from her head. It felt like a damn migraine, but she knew better. It was not a migraine at all. It was her inner self trying to get out and in control. "Why...are you here?"

Gaara stared at her like he did not care, his expression never changing even when he spoke to her again. "You should at least say thank you. That's what people say when others save them or do them favors, right?"

He was right, that was what people say when they are grateful to the person who helped them, but she was not grateful. She wished for a moment that he was the psychopath he was when he was twelve so that he could have killed her in her weakened state instead of bringing her to the goddamn hospital for treatment. Wishing for him to be the same cold blooded murderer was not right, she knew that. It would not be fair to him if wishes really could come true because then all the hard work he went through would be for nothing.

She looked at him, considering whether she should tell him what she thought or if she should just pretend to be thankful. She was so sick and tired of pretending that she was happy or fine, but she did not want him to know how she truly felt either. "...Thank you, Kazekage-sama." The words were like horrid music to her ears. When was the last time she ever even _thought_ about saying those words to someone?

"You are welcome." He continued to stand next to her, his arms still crossed over his chest. He opened his mouth to speak, to voice something that had been on his mind since he had seen her the night before, but a nurse interrupted him.

"Excuse me, K-Kazekage-sama, the Hokage-sama requests that you see her right away. She says that it is urgent and that she would like to know how progress is going with your border control." The nurse seemed to be a little nervous, and Gaara simply guessed that he was the one who was causing this young ladies nervousness. "S-Sakura-sama, I have to do a check up on you now. P-please do not do anything that would cause me to call the ANBU again for help."

Gaara looked over at Sakura, curiosity clearly written on his face. Sakura looked at him with what might have been a small smirk. "I do not like to be examined. I hate being in the hospital," she explained with a small shrug. She really did not have a problem with hospitals, she worked in one after all, but Inner Sakura was a different case. She hated hospitals.

Gaara nodded his head and walked towards the door. "I will be back after my meeting with Hokage-sama. When I do get back...may we talk?" He looked at her over his shoulder, and he saw her nod slowly, almost as if she was not sure if she should agree or not. He nodded back to her once before he left Sakura alone in the room with the nurse.

"Sakura-sama..."

"I know, Lin, and you already know my answer to it."

"But I have to make sure that you are recovering," the nurse said as she looked down at the white tiled floor. Sakura was a great medical nin, she knew that because she had been Sakura's assistant on some of the surgeries and/or healing sessions, but it was still her job to make sure she was alright.

"Take my word for it, I am fine. I am healing, and the poison is almost completely gone." Sakura looked out the window to her left and watched the wind shake the limbs of a couple small trees outside of the hospital. "When can I get out of here?"

"...Tsunade-sama wants you to stay here until tomorrow. She wants to check up on you before she gives you the okay to leave."

Sakura opened her mouth to protest, to say she was going to leave whenever the hell she felt like it was time for her to leave, but she found that there were now three ANBU standing behind Lin. She did not want to fight her own village nin, it was not really necessary. With a sigh, Sakura laid back down on the bed. "Fine, I will wait until Tsunade-sama comes to check up on me, but you are not giving me a check up." She sent a look at the nurse that said she was serious, and the nurse took the hint.

The nurse turned and left the room, but the two ANBU stayed where they were standing. It appeared that they were not going to leave her alone after all. She knew that the two men were just doing their jobs, but it made her feel like some sort of criminal...they always did. She sighed and looked back out the window, and blinked when she thought she spotted a glimpse of silver hair.

'It couldn't be...' she thought to herself as she squinted to look harder. Again she saw the glimpse of silver hair, but this time she also saw a glimpse of caramel. The smallest of smiled ghosted over her lips for a moment before it left, a small realization set in. Kakashi did not like hospitals...he would not come here unless he had no choice or...if something happened to...

Despite the pain in her left side, Sakura threw the covers off of her and jumped out of the bed, startling the two men in the process. She began to ran towards the door, but the two men blocked her way. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and glared at them hard. "Let me through. Now."

"We cannot do that, Sakura-san. Our orders-"

"I don't give a damn about your orders. Let me through. Someone is injured and needs my help," she gritted out through her teeth.

The two ANBU looked at each other for a moment before they looked back at her, unsure if they should let her through. Seeing their uneasiness with the situation Sakura shot between them and through the door a little easier than she had thought it would be. It was like they did not try to hold her back. She called over her shoulder, "I will be back in a little bit."

She ran down the hall way as fast as an injured kunoichi could until she reached the receptionists desk. Standing there, in front of the woman behind the worn brown desk, was Kakashi and Genma. Genma was leaning a little heavily on Kakashi and she saw that Genma's jounin vest was not really green on the side. It looked almost black. She rushed towards them, calling out there names to get their attention as she did so.

The two men turned and smiled at seeing Sakura. She motioned them to a bench in the hall and made Genma sit down. She stripped him of his jounin vest and placed it on the floor. "What happened?" she asked as she gathered chakra into her hand so she could heal Genma's wound. She placed her hand on the right side of his stomach and found a large ragged cut.

Genma hissed. "Border trouble." That was the only answer he gave her, and she assumed that he was not allowed to say what they were doing at the border, even if she was ANBU as well. He watched as she slowly healed his wound, her long slender and elegant fingers lightly caressing his skin with careful attention. He smirked when he found her eyes closed to better concentrate on her task and could not help but try to leer down the small black shirt she was wearing.

Kakashi stood next to Genma and gave him a quick smack on the side of the head. Genma turned his head and glared at his friend, silently asking "what?" but Genma already knew the answer. He sighed when Sakura stood back up and stood in front of him. "Done." She turned to Kakashi and looked him over, from head to toe before she finally said, "Your turn."

Kakashi blinked and scratched the back of his head. "I'm fine, really."

She placed a hand on her hip. "Uh-huh. Get over here and sit down now."

Kakashi sighed and did as he was told. Looking over at a smirking Genma, Kakashi again sighed. His onyx eye watched as she took off his vest, and then his black shirt. Genma gaped, "Hey! Why didn't you take my shirt off?"

"Because I could just lift your shirt to get to your wound. I can't do that with Kakashi's," she explained simply as she again gathered chakra into her fingers, making the glow in a blue hue. She stopped and looked up when she felt Kakashi's hand on hers.

"You don't have to heal me, Sakura." He looked her over to see that she had obviously been in the hospital due to the small wrapping she had around her torso. He could barely see the white binding that encircled her ribs, but he could still put two and two together. Besides, she was not suppose to work in the hospital today.

"It's okay. I'm fine, promise." His hand slowly lifted from hers and she again gathered chakra into her hand. It hurt, to gather the chakra. She felt weak, but she had to heal him. She had to do at least that. She placed her hand on his chest and removed the horribly bandaged bindings. She placed her hand on the small wound and slowly closed it, cleaning it of infection in the process.

She opened her eyes and stood, her green orbs staring into his uncovered onyx eye. Genma stood up from the bench and gave Sakura a hug. "See ya later, princess. Thanks for patching me up too."

She hugged him back, "No problem. Just be more careful next time, alright?"

He nodded and let go of her to turn and walk towards the exit of the hospital. "Sure thing."

She turned to Kakashi, who had already put his back shirt back on. She decided that she looked better with the shirt on, it was too weird to see him without a shirt. She walked to him when he extended an arm to her, inviting her to sit with him. She sat down next to him on the bench, his arm wrapping itself around her shoulders and pulling her to lean against him.

He did this often, and she was always thankful for it. He and Genma, they were the only ones around for her these days now that everyone else was too busy for her and Ino had died. She laid her head on his chest comfortably and closed her eyes, inhaling his forest and dirt scent.

Kakashi leaned his head on top of her, softly whispering. "What happened?"

"...They are gone," she said softly. "But they were always gone, weren't they?" She did not know why- or maybe she did- but telling Kakashi about her parents' death was not difficult at all. It was almost like they had been dead for a long time and not for a day. She wrapped her arms around Kakashi's waist as he wrapped his other arm around her other shoulder to cup the back of her head.

"It's okay to feel that way, Sakura. I am here for you."

She nodded against his chest, knowing that it was the truth. She wanted to be a little kid again, if only for a moment, to ask the childish question of, "Promise to be here with me forever?" but she knew the answer already. He would reply with, "As long as I am able." She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. The two shinobi remained silent for a long time before Kakashi spoke again.

"Sakura, you're tired?" Kakashi asked her softly. When he received no answer from her, he looked down at her and found that she was already asleep. He chuckled quietly to himself as he carefully moved her so that she was laying on top of him so he could stand up without disturbing her slumber. He cradled her to him as he picked her up bride style and walked over to the receptionist at the desk.

After he was told what room Sakura had been placed in, he walked down the hall to her room and placed her down on the bed softly before he covered her with the white sheets. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her bed as he ran a gloved hand through her loose pink locks.

His cherry blossom had gone through so much these past years, and he could not help but feel a tinge of guilt about the situation that she found herself in. Perhaps if he had paid more attention to her when she was younger; when they were actually Team 7, then maybe none of this would have come to pass. She had so much potential that he had not seen. He had thought that she would always just be an average kunoichi...but damn it all was he ever wrong.

The Fifth, she had seen the potential in Sakura, took her under her wing like a mother would, and taught her everything she knew of the medical arts. Tsunade even went as far as to teach Sakura how to use her chakra to increase her strength. There was no going down in her abilities for Sakura after that. She just kept getting better and better. She was top class, deserving of even placing her name in the Bingo Book.

How he could be so blind to her distress and need of consolement when she was younger, he did not know. Perhaps if he had been more involved in her life, in her training, and in her person, then he might have helped her avoid so much depression and aches. Perhaps if he had attached himself to her more, the way he had with Sasuke and Naruto, then she might not have felt so bad. He felt as if not seeing her as anything close to Sasuke and Naruto somehow contributed to her depression at her younger years- and he was right.

Back then he did not know that by not training with her the way he did with the two boys would cause her to see herself as tremendously weak and unworthy of being his student. He remembered that once, a while ago when Sakura had one of her frequent nightmares and came running into his living room, she had admitted that in one point in the course of her training with Team 7, she had thought it better to quit being a ninja. She had said that she had thought of herself as the weakest genin out of everyone who graduated from the academy, and due to that...she was not worthy of being taught in the art of the ninja by the legendary Copy-nin Hatake Kakashi.

Her words that night, they had hurt him that she would think of her self so lowly. That she would disregard her strength and intelligence by comparing herself with Sasuke and Naruto. Then again, when he thought about it more deeply, he had looked at her the same way. He regretted it from the bottom of his heart that he ever thought of her that way. So consumed they all were with Sasuke and Naruto, that they never knew of Sakura's situations at home, nor that she felt so neglected.

Everything, from the moment she decided to go to the ninja academy had lead up to this point in her life. Kakashi cupped her left cheek in his hand with care not to awaken her, and lowly whispered an apology. "I'm sorry, Sakura." As a teacher, he had failed his only group of students. He had failed the moment Sasuke decided to leave Kanoha and seek out Orochimaru for the strength required to kill his older brother Itachi and attain revenge for his slaughtered clan and family.

Slowly, Kakashi stood up from his chair and bent over Sakura's form and gave her a light kiss on the forehead with his cloth covered lips. He loved her; the way a father would his daughter. In a way- guilt put aside- he was proud that she looked at him as her father instead of her sensei. Walking out of the her room and down the long hall of the hospital, he met with Gaara at the hospital's entrance.

"Kazekage-sama," he greeted with a small wave.

Gaara nodded once, "Hatake."

The two men continued on their way as if they had not seen each other, and Gaara made his way straight to Sakura's room. He figured that the Copy-nin had more than likely checked up on his student and might know a bit of what was going on. He was curious to see how Sakura would be like after talking to her sensei. Would she still be so cold and dismissive towards him? It had been bothering him a great deal that he felt like he somehow owed her something. As if he _needed_ to figure out what had happened to her and help her gain a small piece of happiness that she well deserved.

Though, he did not entirely know how he would go about bringing this little piece of happiness into her life.

After speaking with Tsunade about the border patrols and inspections, she had asked him to take a mission for her. He agreed without asking what the mission would be, thinking that perhaps she just needed him to do some sort of observation or tracking of the sort. He should have waited to hear what the mission was about before he had agreed to it. As it turns out, the mission Tsunade had laid out for him had to do with Sakura and her behavior.

Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage of the Fire Country, wanted him to observe Haruno Sakura. To do so, he would have to stay in Kanoha for a short period of time but never stay more than a week because Sakura, being the intelligent and talented shinobi that she was, might find out that he was trying to get something out of her. Everything had to be gone about carefully when dealing with Sakura; she was no longer weak and defenseless.

Gaara no longer knew how to act in front of her...it was like getting to know her all over again, and he knew that at times it would get a little frustrating when it came to having patience and waiting it out. When he entered her room, he found her sitting up on her bed, holding her head in her right hand as she gazed out the open window. He noted that she looked more fatigued than when he had left, and that she had lost a lot of chakra. "What were you doing when I left?" he asked in his same monotone.

"I healed some injured patients," she replied nonchalantly. After another moment, she stood off the bed and stretched a little, ignoring him completely. His eyes narrowed at her disregard of him, like he was not even there. He noticed that she had not changed her dirtied ANBU uniform. She looked over her shoulder a little. "I'm leaving. The nurses already know that I won't wait for Tsunade to grant me permission to leave."

The way she said it seemed like it was not worth speaking to him about it. She had said it like she was talking to no one in particular, not caring if he approved or not. He watched as she leaped out of the open hospital window onto the green path of grass outside of the building, landing in a rather low crouch before she stood and calmly walked away. He just stared after her.

"I;m going to Kakashi's," she said off handedly.

She knew no one would care where the hell she went. They wouldn't even go check up on her to make sure she was still alive. Sakura knew that he would not follow her. No one would...no one ever chased after her. Well, Kakashi was the one exception these days. She was able to walk away from Gaara using a slow pace, making it seem like she did not care weather he took pursuit of her or not.

**End...for now. I do have chapter 3 just about done as well...so that should be up soon...REVIEW PLEASE!!!!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Dead Like Me **

Gaara simply stood in compete silence in what was once Sakura's hospital room, and blankly stared out the open window in which she had fled from. His mission had only started this morning and already he was having problems executing it. He did not know what to do with the pink haired woman who was his target.

Should he go after her and drag her back to her hospital bed until she was fully recovered, or should he just go and talk to her before she arrived at the Copy-nin's house? He wanted to accomplish both of those objectives in one strike, but he did not know how to do that now that she had already left the hospital without permission.

He had to think this through...she was not an ordinary opponent. She was smart, that much was obvious because he had seen her ANBU profile. She had passed every area with outstanding markings, but her stealth and intelligence levels were above everything else. Playing mind games was something he himself was never good at, so getting himself into a situation that required immense thinking and planning was not something that he wanted to do. He wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

Considering the weakened state in which she left the hospital, she could not have gotten very far in her condition. The way in which she had jumped out of the window had not been very graceful in the least, and secondly, there was just no way that she could have recovered that fast from her wounds and blood loss. He was certain that she was still very close nearby because he could still sense her chakra.

Sakura was not even trying to mask her chakra...either she was over confident that he would just let her be or she was too tired and fatigued to even _try_ to hide her chakra level. However...either way she had just made his mission all the more complicated. She was unstable, that was for sure, and she had changed a lot more than he had first thought.

Deciding that he had given Sakura enough time to think that he was not going to go after her, he calmly walked out of the hospital and in the direction in which he sensed Sakura's chakra coming from. He was not a brilliant person when it came to analyzing people and he was even worse at comforting people. He had no idea how he was going to go about completing his mission without giving her any suspicions or hurting her.

As Gaara analyzed everything about Sakura, and what little interaction he had with her in the past, he wondered if there was just an easy way to do his mission. '_I say just kill the girl and say that it was an accident, ku ku ku!'_

Gaara inwardly sighed with agitation and jumped from the main street of Kanoha to the rooftops. 'And here I thought I wasn't going to be hearing from you until we got back to Suna.'

'_Ku ku ku! I don't like you that much, you know. Besides, you haven't been killing anyone in a long time. I want some blood; and that pink haired girl...she was the one we tried to kill in the chunnin exams.'_

Gaara wanted to say, 'you mean _you_ almost killed', but he knew that was not entirely true. He hated when Shukaku was right, and this was one of those situations where he was right. 'Yes, she is. Her name is Haruno Sakura, and I am not going to kill her. I already told you that I was not going to go around killing people for no reason like I use to.'

Shukaku sounded disappointed, '_Feh, you're going soft on me! Don't tell me that that weak little creature calls your interest?'_

Gaara stopped jumping from rooftop to rooftop when his eyes spotted pink hair moving slowly through the busy street. A frown that almost appeared like a scowl appeared on his face, 'I am not attracted to her. She is my mission, and I shall compete that mission. Besides, she is Naruto's friend.'

Without giving Shukaku the chance to come up with a smart remark, Gaara locked him up in a corner of his mind. Though Gaara had changed over the years, his feelings had not changed completely, and he still did not like the unavoidable conversations with the Shukaku in his head.

Aside from the annoying conversations that Shukaku would start, Gaara was reminded of what he really was when he could hear Shukaku. He was just the Shukaku's container and nothing more. The damn thing had been behaving itself as of late too, seems ironic that good things never last for very long.

The only other person he knew who had a similar problem was Uzumaki Naruto, but the Kyubi – unlike the Shukaku- did not thirst for blood. Speaking of people...he was slightly thankful for her state of fatigue and for the slow pace in which she was walking in between the crowd of people because in his short rambling through his thoughts, he had lost sight of her. Then again, her pink hair was easy to spot, wasn't it?

He watched as she made a right and walked into an empty ally. He assumed that she was taking the 'back route' so as not to get caught by someone who knew her. After all, she had left the hospital without the Hokage or Shizune's permission or dismissal. He stared at her as she slowly, yet hurriedly, made her way through the alley.

He jumped off of the roof and landed on her right side as gracefully and quietly as he could. He became slightly agitated when she did not tense or react in any way to his presence. She merely kept walking forward as if he was not right there beside her. He fell into step beside her and crossed his arms over his chest as he glared at her out of the corner of his eyes. "I nee-"

"Why are you here, Gaara? You have no business with me anymore, so why are you following me?"

She was rude today, wasn't she? "Well, if you had let me finish my sentence before you cut me off, you would have found out," he said smartly. Gaara chose to ignore her snort and continue talking, "I need to talk to you...alone. Now."

Sakura looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He was only in Kanoha two days and already he thought he could just bark out orders at her? Well, he had another thing coming. "No. If you _need_ to talk with me then you will do so after I have taken care of my own business, _Kazekage-sama._"

"With Hatake Kakashi?" he asked, trying to get a start on his information gathering.

"Yes, with Kakashi. Is there something wrong with that?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

'She's acting like I am offending her...' "What is Hatake to you?"

What was he, her father? God, he was getting annoying with his questions. What did he care what Kakashi was to her? She was not going to tell Gaara anything else. "What do you care? It's none of your business."

Gaara inwardly growled in irritation. Why could she not just tell him the truth? Why was she making this more complicated than it really was or had to be? "Are you always so rude to rulers of other countries?" he asked, not even noticing the cork to his gourd _pop_ off and fall to the ground behind him.

Obviously, Sakura did not notice the small cork either, and she continued on with her rudeness, not caring in the least that Gaara had a very short temper on him at all times. "No, just those who think they could boss others who do not belong to their country. I understand that you are the Kazekage of Suna, Gaara, but you are not in Suna, so you should not talk to me as if I were one of your secretaries or something."

...Did he sound like that? If he did, he did not mean to sound so demanding, but he was not going to tell her that. He would just prove her right. "I am simply trying to make conversation with you, kunoichi."

'_You'd think he would at least call you by your name.'_

'Feh, that's what I was thinking,' Sakura told her inner self as she inwardly rolled her eyes. "I do not want to converse with you, Kazekage-sama. I have to get to Kakashi's house to talk to him about something important to me. You are just delaying me."

Gaara grabbed her wrist and stopped her from walking as he stood still and glared at her. "Do not address me with such mild interest, kunoichi. Although I am not in my country, you must still respect me."

Sakura stared at her hand and then up at Gaara with what seemed to be an irritated expression- that or she was slightly angry. "When you treat me with respect, then I shall also treat you with respect, Kazekage-sama. We are in _my_ country, and even if we were in yours, I would not allow you to treat me as you would a secretary."

As an attempt to change the subject, and avoid apologizing to her, he looked into her fiery green eyes. "What is he to you?"

Again with the same question? "It's none of your business," she snapped.

Gaara misread her little outburst; "So he _is_ your lover then?"

Sakura looked at Gaara with disbelief. "Are you f-ing crazy? He's twelve years older than I am! Besides that, he was my sensei for heaven's sake."

How utterly frustrating, he had just been pushed back to square one in figuring out her new personality and who she was dating. So the copy ninja was not her lover, and something was clearly wrong to have her acting the way she was. If he wanted answers from her then he should try to be nicer and perhaps more polite, because as she had already pointed out to him, he was in Kanoha, not Suna. However, being polite and 'nice' was never something he was good at.

"So...what about the Uchiha?"

'_Ah, there you go. At least it seems you got a reaction out of her this time,' _Shukaku stated.

Sakura had seemingly stopped breathing and for the first time, he could see that the mention of the Uchiha stirred many emotions within her. He watched as she clenched and unclenched her fists until she looked back up at him with an unreadable expression and spoke.

"I have no more relation with the Uchiha. Do not mention him to me in any way. Now, if you are through asking me questions, I need to get going." Sakura attempted to start walking again, but she found herself going no where as Gaara still had a firm hold on her slender wrist.

The sand around her small right ankle tightened its hold to the point that it was painful, but Sakura said nothing to Gaara nor did she show any signs of pain. Why, she did not know, but for some reason, she knew that he was not aware of what his sand was doing to her. If the sand tightened any more, it might break her ankle. "Gaara, you are waisting my time," she said casually.

Gaara stared hard at her as he held her small wrist in his hand tightly. "Actually, I had only begun to ask you questions. I have plenty more to ask you, Haruno," he replied, his light blue eyes narrowing slightly. The sand around her ankle tightened and she tried not to flinch, but it was far too painful to keep from flinching. He seemed to finally realize what his sand was doing and he called it back into his gourd.

He did not apologizing to her, nor was there any sign of sympathy in his eyes even after the sand was no longer gripping her ankle, but maybe that was due to the fact that he was not staring at her ankle, thus, not seeing the crimson blood staining her percilain skin where his sand used to be.

Sakura got angry and as she fought to calm herself down; she also fought to stop her inner self's chakra from flowing throughout her body and taking control of her body all together. This man standing in front of her, this man, Sabaku no Gaara, was infuriating! What was more...the part that confused Sakura to no limits...was the fact that he could annoy her so easily when no one else could make her feel like that anymore. The hard mask, the emotionless mask that she has developed seemed to fail when Sabaku no Gaara was around her.

"What do you want from me?" Sakura hissed through gritted teeth, her green eyes like a blazing fire, as she gave one last yank on her wrist, but could not get it free.

What _did_ he want from her? Why could he not just make it easier for himself, as well as for her, and tell Tsunade that he did not want to do this mission? Why could he not just go home to Suna and make up some far fetched tale and say he finished the mission? And _why_ in the seven hells...did he have to see her that night two days ago standing in the middle of the street as the rain fell on top of her?

Why could he not have just left her unconscious form lying there in the dirt until Naruto or someone else came for her...or stumbled across her by pure luck? These questions, and so many others, had been running through his head since the moment he accepted Tsunade's damnable mission regarding Sakura. He was beyond frustrated because he did not have very good answers for any of these questions roaming through his head...and he hated not knowing. "I want...to know you, Haruno." Her expression was one of shock and surprise.

Sakura stared at Gaara with wide green eyes and she felt a small flickering flame slowly being lit in the back of her mind. '_He...wants to...know me?'_ She looked into his eyes with that same expression on her face. "You want to...know me?" she asked slowly, almost distantly. She did not want to say the words too loudly for fear that it was not true, and fear that what he had said had not really left his mouth and she was just imagining it.

Her expression reminded him of the time when _she_ had been placed on a mission in Suna. He remembered that day so clearly that it sometimes scared him. Then again...he was meant to remember that day in Suna with her.

The Kazekage was sitting in his chair as he continued to sign the mountainous amount of paper work on his desk. He felt as if his hand was going to fall off if he signed just one more paper. He had been signing papers and reading through mission reports since this morning, and he was getting tired of it. After all, there was only a certain amount of time that he could stand staying in his room while doing the boring task of paper signing.

Just as he achieved the end of his patience, he hurled the retched pen across the room and sighed in boredom, his door was knocked on lightly. He blinked a few times and stared at the door as if it were a foreign object he had never seen. He heard the knocking again and knew that his mind was not playing tricks on him. He straightened up on his chair and used his sand to bring him back the pen he had tossed across his office. He pretended to still be signing paper work as he addressed the person who was knocking on his door. "You may come in."

He looked up from his stack of papers as the door slowly opened. He stayed silent as he saw the pink haired jounin standing in the door way. "Erm...I hope I am not disturbing you, Kazekage-sama," Sakura said as she still stood in the doorway.

Gaara shook his head, relieved to be doing something other than signing paper work. "No, you are not disturbing me. Come in Haruno-san."

Sakura nodded once and closed the door behind her when she was inside of his office. "My squad just finished the mission for you...and I came to give you the mission report."

He watched with a blank expression as Sakura stretched out her arm to him to hand him the pieces of paper. '_Great,'_ he thought, _'more damn paper.'_ He took it from her and opened the offending manila folder to briefly skim through its continents. He looked up at her, "There were no casualties?"

Sakura smiled and shook her head, "Nope. Not a one!"

He nodded and continued skimming through report. "...Umm...you seem really bored, Kazekage-sama," he heard her say.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked without taking his attention from the mission report.

"Well, no...but I thought that you might get bored or lonely being in this office of yours all day long; day in and day out. I mean, no one really comes to your office unless it's about a mission or something right; just to hand you more and more work? I just thought...that maybe sometimes you wished...not to be alone all the time? To have some company every now and then...some to talk to about any thing you want?"

'_Keh, if you only knew how right you were, kunoichi.' _Gaara looked up at her slowly, "I am the Kazekage. Being alone in this office every single day of my life comes with the job in case you were not aware of it."

Sakura contemplated replying to that. Would he kill her if she kept talking? Probably not. "Well... you want to know what I think, Kazekage-sama?" When she got no answer from him, she took it as an 'I-don't-care' reply or a 'No-I-don't-want-to-know-what-you-think' answer. Either way, she was still going to tell him what she thought. That was why she was still inside if his office, and not walking down the long row of stairs, right?

"I think that the being alone part does not come with the job of being Kazekage. I think that you _choose_ to be alone up here in your office...because it's easier than to try and deal with other people. I mean, either Konkuro or Temari could come up and keep you company for a while."

"Temari teaches classes at the Ninja Academy. Konkuro is always out on missions," he replied right after she finished her sentence.

Sakura bit her lip at that. What was she going to say to that now? "Well...you could always call Naruto when you don't feel like being alone." After a few moments of silence she added, "Or even me. You could call me when you have no one to talk to."

At the sight of his perplexed face, Sakura wondered if she had maybe gone too far in saying things that were none of her business...but then he blinked and he was calm and professional again. This time she was the one who made the perplexed expression. He could be so weird sometimes. "D-did I say something I should not have?"

Gaara looked up at Sakura and shook his head, but said nothing more to her. She felt uncomfortable just standing in his office, so she began to slowly shift from foot to foot as she waited for him to dismiss her. He looked over the report Sakura had handed him one last time, and then placed it on the desk in front of him as he stood up from his comfortable black leather chair. "Thank you for your help, Haruno-san."

Sakura gave him a smile as she tilted her head to the side. "No problem. We are allies, right? So we need to help each other out every once in a while when we need the help."

Gaara frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "The only reason why Kanoha chooses to help Suna is because of the alliance treaty between the two counties. With out that, Kanoha would not have bothered to help us out."

Sakura tried not to take offense to his blunt declaration, and frowned at him. "That is not true Gaara. Even without the treaty, Kanoha would have still come to help you and Suna. A treaty is just a piece of paper with writing on it...it can easily be violated and destroyed; but, the bonds and what it _means_ cannot be burned or forgotten."

"Why?" he asked, looking slightly confused...or maybe it was curiosity.

She smiled brightly at him, "Because we're friends, Gaara! Well, at least I hope that we are friends. I would really like to get to know you better. I would like to be your friend."

'_My...friend?'_ Gaara had very little friends to speak of and was very cautious about letting people get to know him. "Why do you want to be my friend?"

'_Hmm, what kind of an answer can I give him that won't make it seem like I want something from him?' _Sakura smiled at Gaara; "Well, because I _want_ to be your friend. You don't need a reason to want to make a friend, you're usually friends when you tell each other your name."

Giving the word _friend_ more meaning, Sakura continued on with her explanation, her voice reflecting on one of her own close friends. "A friend is not someone that you just share happy times with, a real friend is someone who will be there for you through the hardships in life too. Someone who will lend you a shoulder to cry on when you are upset, someone who will let you sleep at their house when you have no where else to go, and someone that you can always come to for help no matter what the problem is. That is a _real_ friend, Gaara-sama."

Gaara thought over her answer for a moment, that was what his sister had told him as well; but no one really wanted to be his friend. No one wanted to do all the things she had said a friend should do to him, because although he was Kazekage of Suna, most every one was still afraid of him. Well, he could not entirely say everyone because Naruto Uzumaki was his friend, and now she wanted to be his friend, too. Gaara's self defense mechanism kicked in for a second. '_She could be lying to me,' _he thought half heartedly.

Searching her bright green eyes for any sign of deceit, but he could find none. She was as truthful and sincere as anyone could be- unless you were a saint- and she had never lied to him either. "Kunoichi, you may get to know me better."

Sure, his answer might have been professional, and his expression was one that looked like he did not care in the least if she really got to know him or not, but Sakura knew better. Her smile became so much brighter and her joy radiated like the rays from the sun. "Awesome! Next time I'm in Suna, you and I can hang out, right?"

Gaara blinked; "Hang out?"

"Yeah, you know. It's like another word for spending time together," she said sheepishly.

Gaara nodded his approval, "Next time you are in Suna, we may 'hang out,' kunoichi."

"It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura, not kunoichi," she replied with a serious expression.

Gaara looked at her strangely, "I am the Kazekage, I may call you anything I wish."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," she said as she crossed her arms behind her head. "Listen, I got to get going, but with any luck, I'll be back in Suna sometime soon."

At that time, he had been the one to have had that surprised look on his face, but now their places had seemed to be turned. She seemed to look like a small child, and he assumed that he had looked the same way when she had asked him to be her friend. "Yes, I do want to know you. You are the one who offered me your friendship in the first place."

She seemed to be at a lost for words, and did not know how to react to the situation before her. '_Just take him up on his offer, stupid! You do need the company, it isn't healthy to always be by yourself, you know.'_

She was right, but Sakura was afraid to get involved with anyone. She was afraid to get close to anyone because she might unintentionally hurt them. She was sure that Gaara would be able to defend himself against her; however, she did not want to risk him looking at her differently than before. Yet, despite all of that, she _wanted_ to let him be here friend.

It had been a long time since she heard the words, "I want to know you." Although she felt cautious, she also felt anxious. Should she just go with it? Well, he was right, she had been the one to offer in the first place, and she was not one to go back on her word. She looked Gaara straight in the eyes and nodded once, "Alright. But it works both ways, Gaara," she stated seriously.

This time, he was the one to nod, "Fine. We have both agreed. I will see you soon," he said as he disappeared, leaving behind some floating sand in his place.

She smiled ever so slightly while shaking her head at his departure. 'What have I gotten myself into?' She continued on her way to Kakashi's apartment, her mind going over what Gaara had offered her. Friendship was such an estranged word to her now, she had not gone out with friends for the longest time, she was certain that she no longer had any friends to speak of.

She found herself thinking that she should keep it that way, no friends period; but, although she would never admit it out loud, she really wanted a friend. Someone to be around when no one else was there for her, that was all she really wanted anyway-not to feel so lonely.

True, she feared hurting Gaara, but what she really feared was getting hurt by him. She did not care that he was once a ruthless murderer whom only felt alive, only felt like he existed, when he killed other people. She did not care that he had Shukaku trapped within him, and she did not care that he was once mentally unstable. That was all in the past for him. The moment he became Kazekage of Suna, he had started out with a clean slate. What she _did_ care about was if he was trust worthy; he _really_ wanted to be her friend. She would not stand to be stabbed in the back or thrown to the side the way Sasuke did.

Her slender hand reached out and grasped Kakashi's door knob as she shook her head. It did not matter any way she looked at it, did it? It was not as if Sabaku no Gaara would ever talk to her the way Naruto used to talk to her. It was not like Sabaku no Gaara would talk to her about his past, his childhood or his feelings. Maybe the only reason why he offered her his friendship was because he took pity on her and her recent loss. She hated when people pitied her. Absolutely hated it.

She turned the knob slowly, the gold metal shining lightly from the afternoon sun. She closed the door behind her once she had stepped inside the familiar aura that was Kakashi's sent, but she had expected to be alone in the apartment, and Kakashi and Genma were sitting on the black couch in the living room. It had seemed that the two men had been in deep conversation before she had unknowingly interrupted them. Both men gave her happy smiles. They were both happy that she was back in the apartment, safe and unharmed...and still herself.

Maybe, just _maybe_, this was all she would ever need. Perhaps all she _really _needed was Kakashi. She always felt safe and protected in his strong arms, even when she was but a little girl. He had always been there for her, no matter what. However, Kakashi knew she could handle herself, knew she did not need to be protected from enemy ninjas because she could deal with them herself, but he did protect her from everything else around her. He was always there when she had nightmares, offering to sleep with her for the night because he knew she needed it. She loved him deeply for that.

Never again would she allow herself to be protected when she went out on missions, nor did she ever let anyone look down at her as if they were superior than her. When Sasuke had left Kanoha, he had shattered her heart, and left her crying by herself. He had been so damn selfish by leaving her and everyone else that cared about him behind. Luckily enough for Sasuke, she and Naruto, along with Kakashi, were able to bring him back from Orochimaru's hands before it was too late.

She had stopped loving him the day he had broken her heart. She had stopped believing in fairy tales the day he left her behind, and the day she became ANBU. There were no happy endings in the world she lived in, the life she lived...but...she was slowly starting to believe...that not everything was completely wrong.

**END for now. lol**

**I am so sorry that I have not updated this story in such a long time. It's not that I lost interest in it all; in fact, I am still trying to finish writing this story. It's just that a lot of stuff happened all at once and it threw me and my writing way back there. I have been reading all the reviews that I have and I really REALLY want to thank my readers from the bottom of my heart. You guys really are amazing and keep me wanting to write this story just so you can read it. Keep an eye out for the next chapter and please don't forget to review. I LOVE reviews :)**


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